10th May 2017 1:00
By Blue Tutors
Now well entrenched even at school age in the United States, so called ‘smart drugs’ are on the rise in UK universities. Certain medications, originally designed to treat specific neurological diseases or symptoms, are being re-appropriated in order to improve performance in academic settings. While there are several psychostimulant medications that could be used to enhance mental performance, the most commonly used are drugs given to Alzheimer’s patients to improve memory, the ADHD drugs Adderall or Ritalin, and Modafinil used to treat narcolepsy and sleep disorders.
Why take them? With promises of increased attention and focus, or simply the ability to stay awake studying all night, there is little wonder there is a market in academe. Having spent years in clinical testing for their original designated uses, the drugs have been shown to modify electrical activity in the brain using MRI imaging, and can produce improved scores on puzzle solving activities mainly through improved focus by “dampening down” other brain circuits. However, the significant gains seen in ill patients for whom the drugs were designed have not been replicable in healthy adult brains, so their effectiveness as performance enhancers is somewhat questionable. In practice, some students rave about how it got them top marks, while others blame it for increased anxiety or even insomnia, and no real performance boost, simply obsessive focus on tiny insignificant details.
Using these drugs is dangerous both from a legal and medical stand point. While taken them without a prescription is not exactly illegal, selling them is. Equally, taking prescription drugs without consulting a doctor first is never a good idea, particularly as they may interact with other medications, and the long-term effects of these drugs have not been tested, let along their effect on a young brain. The disrupted sleep associated with using these drugs may be helpful the night before an exam, but can cause long term damage if it happens regularly.
How big is the problem? There are no rigorous studies or reliable statistics on the UK use of study drugs as a whole, however several surveys have uncovered a pattern of behaviour where their use is seen as fairly normal at many leading universities. Current estimates say at least one in ten students have tried using a smart drug and in a recent survey at Oxford University, as many as one in four undergraduate students admitted to trying to buy these drugs off the internet to take advantage of the potential benefits. The problem has also crept upwards, with a leading academic now claiming that one in five academics in the UK uses smart drugs for things like writing grant applications or committee meetings.
What should be done about it? The main concern, other than safety, with the use of pharmaceutical ‘cognitive enhancement’ is that of fairness. Should they be banned in the same way as performance enhancing drugs are in sporting events? In this case, where should we draw the line? Coffee after all is a stimulant drug but I doubt many universities would get away with banning coffee before lectures or during exams. Some would argue that this is no different to paying for extra tuition or improving diet. At the moment, all of the pharmaceuticals are being used off-label, that is to say not for their intended use, but as the market for such drugs grows, we may see medications specifically designed and intended for this purpose coming onto the market.